


Blinders at Downton

by WeirdGirl2001



Category: Downton Abbey, Peaky Blinders (TV)
Genre: Crossover, F/M, Weddings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-11-07
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:47:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 18,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24439183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WeirdGirl2001/pseuds/WeirdGirl2001
Summary: When Tom Branson get a wedding invitation to his cousin Grace's wedding the Crawley's have no idea what they're getting into by getting involved in the lives of the Shelby's.
Relationships: Grace Burgess/Tommy Shelby
Comments: 40
Kudos: 117





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi thanks for clicking on this.  
> This fic is set roughly in after season 5 of Downton abbey and during season 3 of Peaky Blinders which are both set in 1924. I've tried to be as canon compliant as possible but I have made some changes to the plots of the shows, particularly Peaky Blinders although the majority of the changes will be in later chapters. Hope you enjoy it.

Tom hadn’t expected to be invited to his cousin’s wedding, after all the two hadn’t spoken to each other in years. His and Grace’s sides of the family had been on different sides of the wars for Irish independence, Tom’s side being for it, Grace’s side being against it, and as such they had eventually lost touch. It had surprised him that Grace had even been able to find out where he lived. Though, he supposed, his marriage to Sybil had been made public knowledge in England and it seemed that Grace was now living in England and was due to marry a businessman by the name of Thomas Shelby. Apparently, Mr Shelby was quite prominent in whatever business he was in and the two had recently moved into a manor house just outside Birmingham.  
The letter Grace had sent had arrived while he had breakfast with the usual suspects, Robert, Edith and Mary, a totally ordinary start to the day as far as Tom was involved. His surprise must have registered on his face because, as he got to the end of the letter Grace had sent him with the invitation, which included a brief explanation of what Grace had been up to since they had last seen each other as children, Robert gave him a slightly odd look.

“Is everything okay Tom? It’s just you seem shocked by whatever the contents of that letter was.”

“Yes, everything’s fine. I’ve been invited to my cousins wedding.”

“Cousin?” asked Mary, “I didn’t think you had any family left other than your brother.”

“Marry don’t be rude.” Edith said forcefully.

“It’s fine. I didn’t know I had any family left other than Kieran who would speak to me. I was close with Grace when we were children, but our families were on opposite sides of the Irish independence wars.”

“I say, it’s a shame that you lost track of each other for so many years, I'm glad she's got back in touch with you Tom. Maybe we could invite Grace and her fiancé here so that you have a change to catch up before the big day, it’s terribly unfortunate when there are unresolved issues at weddings and by the sounds of things you and Grace have some things to talk about. What do you say Papa?” Mary asked as she stood getting ready to leave the dining room and start her day.

“I don’t see why not. Invite them for dinner on Friday they can stay overnight, Birmingham is to far away for them to just make a day trip here.” Robert said also getting ready to leave, “send them a letter today Tom.”

Two days later Tom received the reply to the invitation. And there it was settled; Grace and Thomas Shelby were coming to stay at Downton Abbey. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------

Downstairs the staff were also interested in the revelation that Tom had family outside his Brother, and that that family was coming to stay at Downton. It was very much the topic of conversation that night over dinner on the night after Mr Carson reported to the servants that there would be guests on Friday. Of course, Thomas was as cynical as ever.

“I don’t know why they’re being invited here; Mr Branson’s family has no right to be Upstairs, neither does Mr Branson come to think of it.”

“Don’t be unkind Thomas,” Mrs Hughes snapped, “you know as well as I do that Mr Branson belongs upstairs now, he’s part of the family now and therefore Mr Branson’s family will be guests of the house and you will treat them as such Mr Barrow.”

“I don’t see why we should, he didn’t even know about them until last week.” Thomas muttered under his breath earning another stern look from Mrs Hughes.

Daisy chose this moment to drift with a thoughtful look on her face.

“I’d like to find out I had family I didn’t know about,” Daisy said gently as she began to clear the plates on the table, “I mean I’ve never really had family I was close to, it’d be nice to think there was someone out there.”

“It would, wouldn’t it.” Anna replied wistfully. John gave her hand a squeeze, he had known Anna had grown up in the care of a family who she didn’t much care for, a family in Safford. 

“You’ve got me now love.”

“And I couldn’t be more thankful.”

“Daisy!” Mrs Patmore shouted poking her head round the corner from the kitchen, “I said to get the plates and come straight back we’ve got a lot of work to do before tomorrow morning, come on hurry up.” 

“Yes Mrs Patmore.” Daisy scurried off toward to kitchen.

Mr Carson stood up, as did the rest of the staff, “I hope that you will all make Mr Shelby and Miss Burgess with when they arrive. I know they’re not the most prestigious guest we’ve had at Downton, but I expect you to treat them with the up most respect anyway”. And with that he left the room.

Thomas sat in in his rocking chair by the fire. The name Shelby sounded vaguely familiar to him, but he couldn’t quite place a face to the name. Perhaps this visit wouldn’t have be quite as boring as he had thought.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile in a manor house near Birmingham Tommy was not in the best mood, in fact you could say he was in a positively bad mood. To start with Grace had decided to spring on him that he was apparently going to be staying with Grace's cousin on Friday night. This, in itself, sounded like it should be fine, however this cousin apparently lived with the bloody Earl of Grantham which meant that he was going to have to put on an act to fit in with the situation he was about to be placed in. Tommy did not usually try to associate with the gentry when he did not gain anything from the interaction, for example it was beneficial for him to have interacted with Mr Churchill, he had gained his shipping licence from him and managed to get one over on Major Campbell as an added bonus. However, Tommy felt he had nothing to gain from interacting with Lord Grantham therefore he really didn’t see the point in bending over backward to follow the rules of the gentry, Tommy simply didn’t have to time for it. 

Still it would make Grace happy to get back in touch with her cousin. Tom Branson. If Grace was to be believed he had been on the fringes of the IRA a few years back but had married the now late daughter of the Earl of Grantham and had seemingly given up the cause. Tommy wasn’t sure if he trusted that, maybe there was something to gain from the visit to Downton, Tommy was not keen on having a member of the IRA at the wedding could cause too many problems. 

And to top it all of John and Arthur had taken to teasing him about the fact he was going to have to stay in the house of a toff, as they put it. They had been going around since the news had broken calling him Lord Shelby and bowing sarcastically every time he came into the room, Michel and Finn thought it was a right laugh as well which really didn’t improve his mood. Still there were worse things he supposed.

Tommy stared out the window at the dark forest, the smoke from his cigarette curling in the light breeze coming through the window. This was not unusual for Tommy, he barely ever slept since the war and he tried to sleep as little as possible now that he shared a bed with Grace, he hated to wake her when he had nightmares, although they had been getting slightly better as of late.

“Come to bed Tommy.” Grace called over from the bed, she hadn’t been able to sleep with him standing staring out the window. She knew there had been something wrong as of late. She also knew that the visit to Downton Abbey probably wasn’t helping the situation, but it was important to her, she had missed Tom since their childhood.

“I’m going to get some water.” Tommy replied leaving the room without a look back at Grace. 

Grace sighed. She could only hope the visit to Downton Abbey would go well. It was only one night, what could go wrong really.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tommy and Grace meet the Crawley's.

Friday arrived and Tom found himself standing outside the Abbey with Robert stood to his left and Carson and Mrs Hughes to his right. they had decided that it was best not to call everyone out to greet their guests on this occasion. Tom was nervous, he didn’t know Grace anymore it and subsequently there was a fear that she wouldn’t even like him anymore. There was also the added pressure of making a good impression with Thomas Shelby. Robert put his hand on Tom’s shoulder in an attempt to calm his nerves as they saw the car come into view. This is it he thought.

The car pulled up in front of the abbey and the door opened to reveal a man about Tom’s height in a long coat and a flat cap which obscured his eyes slightly. The man walked around the car, without acknowledging any of the onlookers, to open the open the door. A woman in a purple dress got out and looked over at Tom smiling. The man took her arm and the pair walked toward Tom.

“Tom,” Grace said once they got close enough, smiling broadly she hugged him, “it’s good to see you again, it’s been far too long.”

“Its lovely to see you too. May I present Lord Grantham” He gestured to Robert who smiled and held out his hand for Grace to take.

“Grace,” she replied taking the offered hand “and this is my fiancé….”

“Thomas Shelby my Lord.” He said cutting her off, “But I prefer Tommy if that’s okay. It’s nice to meet you Lord Grantham, Tom. Grace has told me a lot about you.”

“Robert, please. It’s nice to meet you too, Tommy, Miss….?” Robert trailed off suddenly realising he didn’t know how to complete this sentence.

“Burgess but call me Grace please, apparently we’re family to an extent, we’re not particularly formal family.” 

Tommy nodded smiling, although it was did not seem entirely genuine Tom thought. Perhaps he was nervous about the meeting too, it was hard to tell not clearly being able to see his eyes. it also seemed his attention was elsewhere, carefully scrutinising the situation, taking in every detail. Tom could almost see his mind working, taking everything in and making judgements about each person he was presented with. Tom found this mildly unnerving but pushed it aside in favour of being happy to see Grace again.  
Robert seemed to debate the lack of formality for a moment before deciding that Grace was correct in her assessment that they were technically family and therefore they probably should call each other by their first names. “Robert then, lets go inside we can have tea. Carson could you bring tea up to the library please, and inform the girls that our guests have arrived.” 

The party walked toward the house Robert leading the charge, Tom and Grace following behind beginning to catch up on the last god knows how many, clearly the years had only paused their friendship and not ended it entirely. Tommy brought up the rear still quiet, taking in every detail slowly, taking everything in. Carson and Mrs Hughes walked off toward the servant’s door.  
\------------------------------------------  
Mr Carson descended to the kitchens confused by what he had just witnessed. Grace had seemed a nice enough girl, talkative if a little unsure of the rules of high society, much like Mr Branson had been at first. Mr Shelby on the other hand he wasn’t sure what to make of. He was quiet but it was easy to see that his mind was quick taking everything in, planning, perhaps looking for a way out. Mr Shelby sort of reminded him of Thomas when he used to scheme and plot against the other members of the household, he hadn’t been doing that as much lately Carson realised. He was still mean spirited and still made snide comments about just about everything he could, but unless he had something to gain from it, he didn’t seem to be scheming as much, not since the incident with Jimmy.

Anyway, that was beside the point. Thomas Shelby seemed to be hiding something behind his quiet, perhaps he was just nervous but Carson thought it was more than that, and if Mrs Hughes’ silence as they walked back downstairs she seemed to sense there was something not quiet right as well.  
\------------------------------------  
“So, Grace, Tommy you must be exited for the wedding?” Cora asked. Mary and Edith had joined them in the Library for tea as well as Cora. Tommy had been mostly silent again while introductions had been made and yet again, he was still looking around taking everything in, Carson noted from the corner of the room from which he observed to proceedings. He had taken off his flat cap now showing his grey eyes and carefully slicked back black hair. Handsome, Tom thought, to an extent he could see why Grace had been attracted to him, although he wished he would talk more and give him a chance to see his personality, who he was as a person. 

“Yes, we really are. It’s been a lot of fun planning the wedding this time around. We’ve had lots of help from Tommy’s family and…. friends” Grace replied, a little hesitantly toward the end looking to Tommy for reassurance that she had said the right thing.

“This time around?” Cora asked cautiously, she had no intention to offend the girl, but she was curious to see what the story there was.

“Yes, I’ve been married before but… um … me and my ex-husband found that we weren’t meant to be together.”

“My.” Mary muttered sipping her tea, obviously looking for a way to change the conversation. She had been taught that it was taboo to talk of divorce, especially with people she didn't really know, “Do you have a large family Tommy?”

Tom was thankful of this question, it meant that Tommy now had to speak and perhaps reveal a little about himself.

“I do, three brothers and a sister. Although, we grew up mostly in the care of my Aunt Pol, so we are close to our cousin, Michel as well.”

“That’s nice, if it’s not impertinent to ask what happened to your parents?” 

“My Mum died, and Dad left.” It was curt reply indicting that this topic of conversation was now off limit.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Mary took another sip of her tea, unsure of how to proceed.

The room dissolved into uncomfortable silence. Grace had mentioned Tommy’s siblings to Tom on the way back in, and briefly in the letter she had sent. She had said that he’d probably like Ada, who had been heavily involved in the Communist movement in London, all of this had been in good faith of course. Although Grace had spoken a bit about the family she hadn’t mentioned any parents, therefore the it hadn’t been entirely a shock to Tom that Tommy’s parents were not longer in the picture, although the conversation with Grace had only been a few minutes long so he hadn’t been sure before now.

Tom decided it was time to break the silence, he wanted to learn about his cousin’s life after they had been split up. He also wanted this meeting to go well so maybe the couple could become regular guests to the family, meaning that he would have a friend at the big parties the Crawley’s through. Perhaps this was a selfish motivation, but he really did want Grace back in his life. 

“How did the two of you meet then?” Tom was quite proud of that, vague enough to allow the conversation to go into a few different directions.

It was Tommy that answered after a silent conversation with Grace where the two just stared at each other deciding how much of their meeting they should share, “She worked as a barmaid in my pub for a while before she went to America to get married. We got back in touch in London about two years after that, had Charles, and the rest is history I suppose.” He smiled widely at the shock that was now displayed on the faces of every person in the room.

“I suppose you would have found out eventually, Charles is our son, he’s nearly two now. By the time he was born we were engaged.” Grace looked slightly dejected saying this, but none the less she was defensive of her son. The family chose only to nod at the mention of their son, choosing to receive their judgement until they were on their own, besides Edith really had no room to talk. 

Again Tom chose to try and keep the conversation going, “That’s an unexpected meeting. Grace, I know things must have been difficult after your father died but I didn’t think you would need to work in a bar.” Tom knew that her father, while not part of high society, had not been short of money before he had been killed. When he died Grace would not had been left struggling enough to work in a bar in Birmingham of all places.

“No, I was actually working for the police at the time. I was an undercover officer investigating the theft of some guns. I left the police force once I was finished with the investigation, turned out they had been mistakenly taken by a local gang.” Grace smiled and subtlety side eyed Tommy who rolled her eyes.

“Blimey” Said Robert looking just as shocked as the rest of them, not really sure what else to say, it was unusual for a woman to work in the police force particularly in such a prominent role as an undercover officer.

“Well that sounds like an interesting career,” Tom stammered, stunned at the information. He coughed. “What is it you do Tommy, Grace said you were in business but didn’t tell me what it was exactly. 

“I own a few bars in Birmingham and London, I sell car parts, but the majority of my income comes from my connections in horse racing. I was a book maker first, but I own a racehorse now, Grace's Secret, she won the Epson Derby a few years back.” Grace smiled at the reminder that he had named his racehorse after her. 

“Yes, I think I remember that. Perhaps we could go riding while you’re here.” Mary said trying to spark conversation again.

“Maybe.” Clearly Tommy wasn't in the mood to talk to Mary anymore.

The room fell back into an awkward silence. The Crawley family were, yet again trying to digest what they had just heard, Robert was starting to get the feeling that the night was going to be a long one, although the joy he had seen from Tom when he saw his cousin seemed to make it worth it, and it wasn't the first time that they had played host to one of Tom's slightly unorthodox relatives. At least Tommy and Grace seemed to be better behaved than his brother. 

“I suppose most of the wedding has been mostly planned by now?” Edith tried, Tom gave her a thankful look.

“Yes, my brothers have done most of it. It’s kind of a family tradition I suppose, my brother and I planned all of John’s wedding a few years back.” Tommy replied smirking again, it was Graces turn to roll her eyes.

“Well I think that’s lovely,” Cora smiled.

The dressing gong was rung out ending the conversation. 

“Right then, time to go change,” Robert returned to his more perky self, “I’ll get Carson to show you to your rooms, I’m sorry but since you’re not married yet you will have to stay in separate rooms I’m afraid.” 

“I’m sure we can cope for one night.” Grace said quickly before Tommy had a chance to say anything, she kissed him and left the room following Robert out the room. She wanted the meeting to go well and if following rules like this would help with then she would do it. 

Tommy sighed and followed her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed :) Next chapter will be a bit of a filler but it should be up in a few days. Thanks for reading.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grace and Tom talk, and Thomas meets Tommy.

Grace and Tom were the first two to be back down to the drawing room changed for dinner, Tom in his white tie dinner jacket and Grace in a red dress with a black trim. Tom was already sat on the sofa closest to the door when Grace walked in. He smiled at her still not quite believing that she was at Downton and could be part of her life again. She sat down next to him gazing around the room in awe.

“You know, when I heard you had married into a family like this couldn’t quite believe it. I bet living here goes against all of your political opinions.” Tom laughed a little bit in response to the teasing, Grace chuckled too.

“I hated being part of this world at first, especially after Sybil died. I was hard but I learnt that I belonged here and so did little Sybbie, it’s what her mother would have wanted really.”

“I know what it is take have to figure out what it is feel like you don’t fit in. I thought I’d never fit in with the Shelby clan, Tommy’s Aunt Polly still doesn’t really like me, but still …” Tom put his hand on her arm in a comforting gesture smiling gently in solidarity “What was she like, your Sybil?”

“She was… she was the most gentle soul I’ve ever met. Bit of a revolutionary she was too, she was a nurse in the war, never met anyone who could be so patient with the soldiers. She was a big supporter of women’s rights, went against his Lordship to attend political meetings, I’ll never forget the look on their faces when she showed up to dinner one night wearing trousers, the Dowager nearly passed out from shock.” The pair laughed at the memory. “No, I’m sure you’d have liked her if you’d been given the opportunity to meet. I can't believe it's almost been 5 years...” he trailed off lost in thought.  
“I’m sure I would have, she sounds like the perfect match for you.”

There was a brief pause in conversation, allowing Tom to live in his memories for a moment and for Grace to just enjoy the company of her cousin.

“What about you, is Tommy your perfect match?” Tom said, pulling himself back to the moment.

“Yes,” The grin the spread across Grace’s face said more about her relationship with Tommy than any words could say, “he’s not a perfect man by any stretch of the imagination but we fit together in a way I’ve never been able to fit with someone before.”

“I’m glad. You deserve to be happy Grace.”

“Thank you, so do you.”

There was another comfortable silence.

“So, you said that you were doing under cover work for a while, how did that happen, I thought you were settled in Ireland?”

Grace paused unsure where to start, “Did you know my father was killed by the IRA?”

“No, I didn’t. I’m sorry.”

“After he was killed an inspector, Mr Campbell, who was trying to clear the IRA out of Dublin, he was a friend of my father. He took me under his wing raised me to fight. When he was sent to Birmingham to hunt down the guns, it made sense that I would go with him, and I wanted to be helpful, people talk to the barmaid so I positioned myself as a barmaid. And then I met Tommy.”

“That makes sense I suppose.”

“What about you, how’d you end up in England. As a child you were practically allergic to anything to do with England.” They both giggled.

“No, I needed the money and the Abbey was hiring. It just made sense. We did go back to Dublin for a while, me and Sybil, got married there, but we had to come back in the end.”  
“I would have thought you’d go back home after she died.”

“I think I might have if I could have, I don’t think I would anymore though, Sybbie is part of this world now.”

“What do you mean you can’t go back?”

“You should probably know Grace, I’m a wanted man in Ireland. I wasn’t going to tell you, but I don’t want to affect our relationship. I was part of a group that burned down a house in Ireland, Robert stopped me from being charged for it as long as I don’t go back to Ireland. Please don’t judge me to much for this Grace, I know I broke the law but I’m a changed man since then, I promise.”

Grace paused, shocked at the confession, but also because she was slightly amused that Tom was asking her for forgiveness for breaking the law even if he didn’t know what Tommy did for a living. 

“It’s okay Tom, I can’t judge really.” She said with a smirk.

Before anyone Tom could ask what, she mean by that, Mary and Cora walked in stopping any conversation of that sort between them.  
\---------------------------------  
In another part of the house Tommy really needed to smoke, and he could use being outside too. As nice as the house was, he didn’t want to be there particularly and he certainly didn’t what to have a formal meal. Tommy finished changing, and walked back down the main staircase, making a beeline for the door. 

“Excuse me sir, if your looking for the drawing room it’s this way?”

Tommy turned around to see a youngish man in a livery gesturing down the corridor, he looked vaguely familiar.

“I’m not looking for the drawing room, I’m going outside for a smoke. Would you like to join me?”

“I’m not sure Mr Carson would approve of that, sir.”

“What Mr Carson doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”

Thomas hesitated but walked forward to open the door for Tommy. This was a chance to find out if the two had met before as well as getting some air before, what would inevitably be, the stifling air of the dinning room hit. Tommy sighed as he stepped out into the inky night, letting the cool air wash over him. Tommy turned tot the man beside him, looking him over again trying to place him, little did he know that Thomas was looking over Tommy trying to work out the same thing.

“What’s your name?”

“Thomas, sir, Thomas Barrow.”

“Nice to meet you Thomas Barrow. Have we met?”

“I’m not sure sir, but I must admit that you seem familiar to me too sir.”

“Well, I haven’t been to the house before, what did you do in the war?”

“I was a medic sir, served in France for a while, but my hand got shot so I came back here to run the house as a convalescent home.”

“I remember now, I was a clay kicker at the Somme, we got trapped underground and had to dig ourselves out, you were part of the team that treated us.”

“I remember that night, it was a miracle any of you survived. It was only a week or so before I was sent home myself. I’m glad to see that your doing well, can’t say that of all my patients…” Thomas trailed off, his mind going to the night Edward died. 

The two smoked in silence for a while, wrapped in the memories that they’d rather forget.

“It’s strange talking to someone who was there. It’s been so long since I have.” Thomas muttered.

“It’s easier not to think about it if I can, easier to shut the door on it and walk away”

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right.”

There was another moment of silence while they both finished their cigarettes.

“I’d better be getting back to work before Mr Carson comes looking for me, but it was nice to meet you sir.”

Tommy shook Thomas’ hand.

“Nice to meet you too Thomas. Perhaps you could show me where the dinning room is before you go.”

“Certainly sir.”

The two walked back inside, shutting the door on the night and the war all over again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed :) Next chapter is the dinner, including the introduction of Lady Rose.


	4. Chapter 4

By the time the family had taken their seats around the table both Lady Rose and the Dowager countess had joined them. The Dowager had been introduced to the visitors shortly before dinner, giving her only minimal time to express her disapproval of Tommy’s dinner jacket. She would much rather men wear tails to dinner but she knew it was a fight she was unlikely to win anytime soon, even Robert didn’t seem to be bothered by the lack of proper dress in most of their guests anymore. She also disapproved of the fact that the family were calling their guests by their Christian names, something she was most definitely not going to be doing.

Rose on the other had had actually been late into the dinning room having had changed for dinner in a rush. The misdemeanour was excused, however, because her train from London had been delayed by a derailment near York. Even the Dowager had to admit that the circumstances were beyond the control of the girl. This of course meant that she had to be introduced to Tommy and Grace at the table, upon hearing the name Shelby she eyed Tommy with curiosity.

“I think I’ve heard your name before, do you happen tot be the same Tommy Shelby who owns the Eden Club in London?”

Tommy tensed, he hadn’t expected anyone at the table to be familiar with his businesses, he could only hope that Rose was not aware of how Tommy had come to own the Eden club. 

“Yes, the Eden club is owned by my family, although my brother Arthur runs it for us most of the time.” The fact that this arrangement with Arthur would have to change soon due Arthur’s new wife, who wanted him out the business, the Crawley’s didn’t need to know that. 

“I must say it’s one of the best clubs in London!” Rose exclaimed with a bright smile that was meant with a resounding look of disapproval from the family, and a slight chuckle from Tom who was rather amused by the Crawley’s attempts to control Rose when she was clearly a force to be reckoned with. Tommy simply smiled in reply.

The dinner continued wrapped in gentle small talk, with the Crawley’s exchanging stories of the estate and the children. Tom and Grace chipped in telling stories of their childhood in Ireland including the tale of a storm that had hit while they where both young, maybe seven or eight, and staying at their Grandparents’ farm together. The two had apparently sneaked out of their rooms and climbed onto the roof to watch the lightning over the fields. They’d both been soaked through to the skin by the time they’d come back in and their Grandmother had been out of her mind worrying that they would catch cold but the scolding they had both received was worth it for the sheer spectacle of the watching the storm from the roof with the dark night sky surrounding them creating a dramatic contrast as backdrop to the display. The too had been beside themselves giggling at the story as they took turns telling the family how, even as they were being told off their grandmother had been hurrying around the kitchen making them mugs of hot chocolate, and wrapping them in blankets before placing them in front of the fire to warm them up, where they had eventually drifted off to sleep. 

Tommy had remained mostly silent through the whole affair, occasionally chipping in to reply to a question or to laugh in the appropriate places. He smiled at his wife-to-be as she told stories with her cousin, it had been a while since she had been this free with her laughter and the stories of her past. In a way he felt guilty for this fact, he had brought her into a life where being this free was a luxury that they couldn’t usually afford, but, at the same time she knew what sort of life he lead far before she had been involved in him.  
Eventually the conversation turned back toward the young couple and their wedding plans. 

“Where are you getting married then?” The Dowager asked, although the Crawley’s knew the question was more aimed at finding out whether the two where to get married in the Catholic or Protestant church, she’d much rather they get married in the protestant church, but given the record of Tom’s family it was likely that the opposite would be true.

“It’s a church in Birmingham Lady Grantham,” Tommy replied, “A friend of mine is a priest, he will be conducting the service.”

“Did he perform your brothers wedding too?” Mary asked remembering earlier that Tommy had mentioned that the Shelby’s tended to be heavily involved in their sibling’s weddings.

“No John was married by a different friend Johnny dogs.”

“What an interesting name,” Edith piped in, “its nice to know that your acquainted with so many men in the church Tommy, it shows good character.”  
Grace tried to hide her amusement at the sentiment only allowing herself smirking quietly to herself.

“Thank you for the sentiment Lady Edith, but I’m afraid I’ll have to correct you slightly on it. My friend Jerimiah who is to wed Grace and I is indeed a man of the cloth, but Johnny Dogs is not.”

There was a moment of quiet confusion before Grace decided to pick up where her fiancé left off.

“Johnny wed John and Esme in the Romani tradition; Johnny is part of the tribe that Esme is from so it mad sense that he should wed them.”

Although there was now an understanding around the table there was still a silence that conveyed the shock.

“But why didn’t they get married in the groom’s religion?” Robert asked still slightly confused.

“My family has it’s roots among the Romani people. My Grandmother was a Gypsy princess. At one time I may well have been married in the same way as my brother, but Grace and I decided that it was better to have a wedding that was more acceptable in society.” Tommy said with a little smirk, sometimes he enjoyed stirring up a little trouble among the upper classes, if nothing else it alleviated some of the boredom of the dinner.

“Well at least it seems that one of your family has sense Mr Shelby.” The Dowager said smiling.

“There’s no need to be rude Granny,” Edith started but she was cut off by Rose.

“I think it’s marvellous that you still use your traditions.” Rose said.

“Me too.” Tom smiled. 

After this the room went back to polite quiet chit chat. The Lady’s continued to talk about the wedding, especially Grace’s dress, Robert asked Tommy about his new estate, and Tom simply enjoyed a dinner with his family from home that hadn’t ended with disaster. He suddenly was very glad that he had invited Tommy and Grace to come and stay, if the rest of the Shelby clan were as pleasant company then the wedding was going to be an enjoyable one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long to get up. Hope you enjoyed it, thanks for reading :)


	5. Chapter 5

The mood over dinner that night in the servant’s hall was one of curiosity. Mr Mosely had reeled off what had happened in the dining room. Mr Carson looked as if he couldn’t disapprove more, though whether that was of the tales from upstairs or the conversation that had taken place. Thomas had to look away to stop himself from chuckling at the way Carson’s eyebrows rose so far up so far up his head that they partially disappeared into his hairline when Mrs Hughes said that she thought that it was nice that Tommy’s brother got married in the gypsy tradition. 

Overall, the servants seemed to like their guests though, the maids complemented Miss Burges on her politeness toward them. They thought it was adorable that even after being apart for so many years Tom and Grace still seemed to find easy to find conversation, it just went to show how close they were as children.

Tommy on the other hand inspired a bit more debate among the servants. Most of them thought that Tommy was okay if a little mysterious. Mr Bates however spoke up saying that he thought there was something not quiet right about the man, if he was honest Mr Carson had to agree with Bates’ assessment but he would not have guests spoken ill of downstairs, even if he did think the assessment was justified. Fortunately, it wasn’t him who had to defend Tommy because Anna stepped in before he could. 

“That’s not nice now is it, I’m sure he’s just nervous. You know as well has anyone here how daunting it is to walk into a house of people you’ve never met before.”

“I like him,” Thomas said causing everyone around the table to do a double take, Thomas was usually quiet at dinner, “he’s nice, we met during the war.”

“You mean to tell us that you’ve met Mr Shelby before, and you didn’t think to mention this.” Mr Carson gave him one of his famous disapproving looks.

“I’m sorry Mr Carson I didn’t realise I needed to give you a list of all the people I’ve ever spoken to.”

“I am not interested in your acquaintances most of the time Mr Barrow, but when said acquaintances are guest in the house, I expect you to tell me.”

“I didn’t know it was him until he showed up, funnily enough I don’t remember the name of everyone I spoke to years ago. Now if you’ll excuse me Mr Carson I’m going for a smoke.” And with that he left.

The table resumed its speculation over the guests of the house, it wasn’t unusual for Thomas to leave a meal after a row with someone. Mr Carson continued to look disapprovingly first at the back of Thomas as he disappeared down the corridor.

“I didn’t know Thomas had friends outside the house.” Anna said thoughtfully.

“I didn’t think he had friends.” Murmured Mr Bates.

“He was friends with Jimmy before he left.” Miss Baxter said sternly, even if Thomas was blackmailing her she hated people talking poorly of him, they were childhood friends after all. Mr Bates snorted in response to that remembering the circumstances in which Thomas and Jimmy became friends.

“I wonder what would make Mr Shelby want to be friends with Thomas.”

The table dissolved back into speculation about the guests. Mr Carson sighed, the sooner the guests left the better.

\------------------------------------------

The next morning, everyone apart from Rose, who had gone into York early to prepare for tea with her Russians, had decide to have breakfast together before they saw their guests off, which allowed for a less formal discussion to take place. Grace and Tom had started up a conversation about the jobs they had worked, grace told him about some of the funnier customers from her time as a barmaid causing Tom to laugh whole heartily. Tom was explaining to her about his work as the Land Agent, which admittedly was the more boring part of the conversation, but Grace was interested, she was still so thankful that she was able to talk to Tom again. 

Tommy was talking to Robert continuing their conversation about the management of estates with Mary. It was interesting talking about the approaches the two took. The Crawley’s preferred to rely on the income that they gained from the tenant farmers while Tommy didn’t have any tenants, instead he relied on the profits of Shelby company limited to fund the estate. 

Edith and Cora were content to sit and listen in on the conversation that were taking place. Eventually the three groups came together discussing the Shelby estate.

“You’ll have to come and visit us at some point, to repay you for the kindness you’ve shown us by letting us stay.” Grace smiled; it was nice having friends that weren’t involved in Tommy’s business. 

“Oh, we couldn’t possibly impose ourselves on you.” Cora replied politely.

“Don’t be silly we would love to have you all to stay, wouldn’t we Tommy.” Grace glared at Tommy, obviously not giving him much of an option. Tommy stared back, smirking slightly. His eyes lit up in the way they only did when he had an idea. 

“We would love to, in fact why don’t you all come to the wedding?” Tommy was pleased with himself, Grace clearly wanted the Crawley’s as friends, this way Grace got her way and Tommy didn’t have to have people who weren’t involved in the family business in the house more often than he had to. 

“Are you sure Tommy? We would hate for you to feel like you had to invite us because you were invited to stay here.” Robert said looking stunned.

“Yes, I’m certain, Tom is coming anyway so it wouldn’t be any trouble. You can all stay at the house.” Grace chimed in smiling. 

“Well that’s settled then.” Cora exclaimed clapping her hands together and smiling. 

Tommy smiled, the invitation of an Earl to the wedding would help with the charity set up, possibly help with covering up the business with the Russians if that sort of thing was required, and keep his wife to be happy at the same time. 

By the time they left the Shelby’s and the Crawley’s had worked out the arrangements for the wedding. The Crawley’s would arrive the day before the wedding and leave the day after leaving plenty of time for traveling and getting ready for the wedding. Robert found himself looking forward to the wedding and stood smiling with the rest of the family as Tommy and Grace drove away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry the chapters a bit shorter than usual today. Hope you enjoyed it. :)


	6. Chapter 6

The journey home for Downton had been quiet. Grace had been content to nap most of the way while Tommy had spent the time going over accounts for the business. The couple were in the habit of not speaking to each other all that much in public for fear of saying something that might cause problems for the family. 

When they got back, they found that most of the rest of the family were having tea in the sitting room. This in itself was not unusual, Tommy and Grace’s manor house had become the centre for the Shelby family to meet when they weren’t at Watery Lane, it was a safe hub for them. However, usually when the family gathered for tea it was Tommy who had called the meeting. 

Grace took when look at the informal meeting in front of her, said a quick hello to everyone, kissed Tommy’s cheek and then left to unpack alone.

“How’d it go then?” Asked Polly taking a sip of tea.

“Well, they’re invited to the wedding.” Tommy replied, smirking at the shocked looks and the way Arthur started to choke on his tea. 

“They’re what?” John stammered out.

“I knew that girl would be the downfall of this family.” 

“She won’t be the downfall Pol, I invited them she had nothing to do with it, she only wanted to invite Tom Branson, not the Crawley lot.” Tommy sighed.

“Yes, but you didn’t only do it to make her happy didn’t you Tom?” Arthur said, ever confident in his brother’s ability to plan.

“It was partially to keep Grace happy Arthur although there are certain other advantages to having an Earl at my wedding.”

“What are you talking about Tommy?” Polly asked concerned, as far as she was worried that this would be the beginning of another one of Tommy’s schemes that they would only learn about properly when it had begun and the police were already after them.

“I found a business deal.”

“Oh for fucks sake Tom, you have to stop making deals without telling us, whose it with this time?” Polly’s suspicion was correct them.

“Russians need us to carry out a robbery, that’s not important though. They’ve got jewels to pay for our work, those jewels will be our real goal.”

“Tommy this is ridiculous the Russians are dangerous, there should have been a fucking family meeting before you started this.” John looked just as annoyed as Polly at the prospect of Tommy running off on his own again. 

“John’s right Tom, it’s more than just us to think about now, there are the kids to think about and as much as I don’t like her you’ll be married soon. What happened to building up the legitimate side of the business, we were doing so well with Michael’s help, I thought that that business with Solomons was the last big illegal job, why Tommy?”

“Because Pol, it was too big an opportunity to pass over.” Polly scoffed.

Arthur sat silent in all of this trying to understand the arguments that were being made before he chose a side. On the one hand Arthur stuck by Tommy’s side most of the time, he was a good leader and his plans, while often going slightly wrong at some point, usually worked. On the other hand, Polly was usually right too, and John was backing up Polly. It was a difficult decision really. Finally, he spoke up.

“What’s this got to do with having a bloody Earl at the wedding?”

“Well Arthur, before I left for Yorkshire, my Russian friends made contact with me. They are sending someone with the first half of the payment for the robbery, the first half of the payment is to be paid in cash. They have decided that my wedding day would be the ideal day for them to do this.”

“For gods sake Tommy,” Polly snapped cutting him off, “is there nothing sacred to you, it’s your wedding day!”

Tommy continued as though Polly had said nothing, “Therefore, an Earl at the wedding, a way to add cover if something were to go wrong. There is of course the added bonus of being in the good books of a Lord.” Tommy finished with a smirk.

Polly took a drag of her cigarette, looking on in disbelief. John was now silence considering what Tommy had said, perhaps he was right about inviting the Earl after all. Arthur smirked right along with Tommy liking the sound of his plan.  
\--------------------------------------------------------------  
Back at Downton the family where also having tea. 

“So, we’re really going to the wedding?” Rose said excitedly, she had returned home not too long after Tommy and Grace left. 

“Yes, my dear.” Cora replied smiling, she was also looking forward to the Wedding it had been a while since she had been to one. Rose looked positively gleeful at the news, imaging what the wedding of her favourite club owner’s wedding would have in the way of music and dancing. Then suddenly her grew a little darker.

“I suppose all of his family will be there?” she said attempting to keep her voice even. 

“I should think so” Replied Tom who had been smiling but now looked a little more nervous.

“It’s just that I’ve met some of Tommy’s family before.”

“Really darling?” Asked Mary curious to see what Rose had to say.

“Well, yes, I sometimes went to his club in London, it’s a very good club.” Robert rolled his eyes at this but allowed her to continue without saying anything, “Anyway, I was there once and got talking to a man called Michael who turned out to be the cousin of the owner, we danced for a good portion of the night and I got free drinks because of him.” This time both Robert and Cora looked a little scandalised at the thought of Rose having a night in a club with a man she’d never met before. “Anyway toward the end of the night Michael’s uncle, so Tommy’s brother, I think it was the older one, anyway he came over and got into an argument with Michael, I can’t remember what about now but he grabbed Michael and walked off.”

“How very rude.” Mary said slightly shocked. 

“Indeed.” Cora said softly.

“I agree. Anyway, when they left there was a girl sat next to me who said that the club was taken over from a London gang, she did give a name but I can’t remember, something Italian I think. But the point is she said that the brother was part of the take over and apparently it was quite violent.” Rose finished.

“My!” Exclaimed Mary not really knowing what else to say. She looked a Tom who staring out the window thoughtfully.

“I mean this girl could have just been someone who had seen me dancing with Michael and tried to stir up trouble between us not knowing I’d never met him before. I just thought it was best to tell you.” 

“You where right to tell us.” Tom said slowly, “But I know Grace, she wouldn’t get involved in a family unless she was absolutely certain they were honourable.” It was clear from his expression that Tom was certain of what he was saying. 

Robert on the other hand was a little more uncertain after hearing what Rose had said, although he was not in the mood to start an argument by hurting Tom’s feelings.

“I’m sure your right Tom, but it doesn’t hurt to be careful. We’ll just keep an eye on the Shelby brothers at the wedding, look for any suspicious happenings.”

The rest of the family agreed with Robert, even Tom although that was a little reluctantly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed this! Next Chapters the Wedding! :)


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I know I said that this chapter would be the wedding, but the chapter was getting too long so sorry.

The day before the Shelby wedding saw the Crawley’s saying goodbye to the children in Yorkshire, climbing into 2 cars and heading towards Birmingham. Robert, Cora and Rose took one car and Mary, Edith and Tom took the other. Tom was excited but there was a slight tension among the rest of the family after what Rose had told them about the Shelby brothers. They had agreed on a plan prior to their departure just in case there was any truth in the rumours that Rose had heard. The plan was to just be wary of the Shelby’s that night, see how they acted around each other and how they behaved, if something didn’t seem quite right then Robert would confront Tommy on his own about what he had heard, if Tommy said there were truth in the rumours or if he has obviously lying, then and only then would any off them say anything to Grace about what they had heard. The servants they had brought with them had also been told to keep their eyes open downstairs to see whether the Shelby’s servants had anything to say against their employers, and although he wasn’t really needed Thomas had been brought for this specific reason, he had natural talent for finding out peoples secrets. Robert felt a little uncomfortable plotting against someone who had so graciously invited them to their wedding but if it meant protecting someone in Tom’s family, as well as possibly saving the family from a scandal if it turned out the Shelby’s weren’t as honourable as they first appeared. 

As they drew closer to the Shelby house they could see that the Shelby’s had come out to meet them, however they were not presenting themselves in the orderly lines that the Crawley’s were used to organising themselves when visitors came to stay, instead they were organised into more of a rabble around the front door, most of the men were smoking in a huddle to one side of the door, while most of the few women stood gathered around the other. The notable exceptions to this general rule were Tommy and Grace who stood next to each other, Grace with a small boy in her arms, in the middle talking quietly to each other, and a woman who stood a little off the group of men on her own. The Crawley’s got out of the cars and Tommy stepped forward smiling. 

“Lord Grantham, welcome, welcome to all of you.” He said shaking each of there hands in a much more enthusiastic welcome than any of them were expecting. 

“Robert, please, if we called each other by first names at Downton we should here too.” 

“I suppose your right, may I introduce you all to my family?”

“Please do.” 

Tommy walked back towards Grace who shifted the child into onto her opposite him in order to give each of the girls a one-armed hug and give Tom a kiss on the cheek on greeting. 

“This is my son Charles” Said Tommy obviously proud of the boy. Cora, Edith and Tom smiled at the boy taking turns to coo over how cute he was. Mary, Rose and Robert stood to one side, Robert gave the boy a small smile still not certain it was proper to acknowledge that a child born out of wedlock was theirs, usually when that happened among high born people the child would be taken on as a "ward", but then again Tommy and Grace were not high born they had worked for their status so perhaps they were not as familiar with this custom, Robert supposed. Mary just seemed indifferent to the whole affair and Rose was distracted by one of the younger men stood with the Shelby brothers.

Tommy lead them over toward the group of men, after they were finished cooing over the toddler, who had spread themselves out a little and put out their cigarettes.  
“These are my brothers Arthur, John, and Finn” He said gesturing to an older man with brown coloured sticking out from under his flat cap hair and a moustache, a younger man whose flat cap was worn at an angle, and a boy who couldn’t have been more than 15 years old smiling widely at them. “My cousin Michael,” so this was the man Rose had danced with, he was shorter than the brother but his suit seemed to be slightly better quality and he seemed to be distracted by Rose’s presence not really playing attention to the rest of the family, maybe he hadn’t completely forgotten about their night together Rose thought hopefully. 

The final man that they were introduced to was Johnny Dogs, who launched into a hearty welcome in a broad Irish accent much to the surprise of Tom who smiled at him, happy to hear someone else with the familiar accent. 

Tommy then stared to introduce the women starting with the woman who was standing on her own, “This is Linda, Arthurs wife,” the woman smiled but Tommy moved on quickly, it was becoming increasingly obvious to Robert that no one in the family other than of course her husband, thought much of the woman and preferred to leave her alone if they could. 

“This is…” Tommy started to introduce the oldest woman in the group, but he was cut off. 

“Polly Gray.” She said taking Roberts hand to shake before working her way around the rest of the Crawley’s one by one, “Tommy’s aunt.” She had a firm handshake and could clearly stand up for herself. It seemed much like the Crawley’s the Shelby family was run by a strong matriarch.

“Thank you, Pol,” Tommy sighed, used to Polly taking over from him, “Esme, Johns wife.”

“Nice to meet you” she said, “we have kids too but Tommy told me to leave them at home.” She finished glaring daggers at Tommy, perhaps jealous that he had been aloud to bring his child to meet the Crawley’s, but she hadn’t been allowed to bring hers. Tommy seemed unfazed by the display. Clearly the woman was not as mind as she looked, thought Mary, perhaps she would fit in with the Shelby women after all. 

“And finally, this is Lizzy, my secretary” Lizzy stayed quiet but waved. 

“Well, its lovely to put names to faces,” said Cora politely. 

“Shall we go inside?” Grace chipped in, glaring at John and Arthur who had gone back to their conversations and had lit up another cigarette. 

“Let’s,” said Edith “your house is beautiful from the outside, I can’t wait to see the inside.”

Grace smiled leading the way with Edith, striking up a conversation about some of the decorations in the hall which was now visible through the door. Polly, Finn and Esme followed, closely followed by Mary. Tom walked in with Johnny, delighted to have found someone to talk about Irish politics with, even if Johnny didn’t seem all that interested. Robert and Cora followed with Tommy, amused at Tom’s antics. Rose and Michael hung back as the other brothers went in, but not before throwing a few teasing words at Michael who they had noticed was staring at Rose. Michael offed Rose his arm which she took and the two walked in in silence. 

Perhaps their plan wasn't going to be needed after all, the family seemed pleasant enough, thought Robert smiling at Rose and Michael who had started talking to each other, both smiling gently.


	8. Chapter 8

Dinner that night was a fairly quiet affair, considering how many people were involved. There was a considerable amount of polite chit chat as well as a fair few complements about the decoration of the house. Tom asked Tommy about the horse in the portrait in the dinning room. 

“I won the Epson derby with that horse,” Tommy replied, “Grace’s secret her name is.”

“Ah yes I think I remember her, trained by May Charlton if my memory serves.” Said Mary slightly surprised by the revelation, Tommy had said he was involved in racing at his time at Downton but he hadn’t said that he had a derby winner. 

“That’s right. You have excellent racing knowledge Mary.” Grace smiled breaking for a moment from her conversation with Tom and Johnny Dogs who were still talking about Irish politics. 

“I also remember that day,” said Robert thoughtfully, “wasn’t there some business with a couple of men being shot, a policeman and an army general if I remember correctly.”

Thomas, who was serving as a footman during the stay, noticed that as Robert said this most of the Shelby’s tensed slightly, especially the aunt and Tommy himself although he was much better at covering it than any of the others. That was interesting Thomas thought, although he supposed that the family could have simply witnessed something still it was something to report back to Robert later that night. Robert had insisted that anything out of the usual was to be reported back to him, both above and below stairs, so far there had been very little from downstairs to report back, two of the maids had spoken about how amusing it was watching Tommy tell his brothers to be on their best behaviour while the Earl and his family were there. Again, this was something to report but didn’t necessarily have a meaning that was not honourable. If truth be told Thomas wasn’t sure if he wanted to find anything that would discredit the Shelby’s, the brothers had seemed like nice people when he had treated them during the war. Still people could change he supposed.

Back in the dinning room, Tommy had given some vague answer about the shootings at the race being a terrible tragedy, and then had very quickly changed the subject to how things were at Downton.  
\--------------------------------  
Thomas sat downstairs after dinner was served, he had been given strict instructions to wait until Bates had come back down after changing Robert for bed before he went up to give his report. 

He waited in the servant’s hall, smoking a cigarette, and watching most of the run around like headless chickens getting things ready for the next day. The rest of the Downton lot were upstairs helping various people change, so he had time to take stock of the day and his surroundings. The most unusual thing about the house was that there was an extra sort of sitting room off the hall downstairs, however unlike in every other house he had been too, this room was not for the use of the servants, or so he had been told when he arrived. Instead the family were the ones who were to use it, One of the footmen at the manor had said as they smoked together before dinner, that Mr Shelby very rarely come down there but the rest of the family often had tea in that room, as did certain business associates, never the posh looking ones though. This, Thomas decided was another thing that would have to go in the report he gave Robert. 

The room in question was in fact in use as Thomas sat smoking. After dinner had finished, and Grace had left for the night so that Tommy wouldn’t see her before the wedding, taking Tom with her, another young woman arrived with a child of about 4 trailing behind her. The two were introduced to the family in the sitting room as they had their after-dinner drinks as Ada, Tommy’s sister, and her son Karl. Apparently the two were supposed to have arrived before the family had but their train from London had been delayed be a derailment on the line. Shortly after that, the Downton ladies had gone up to bed, while the Shelby women had gone into that room at the end of the servant corridor supposedly to fill Ada in on the happenings of the Shelby clan since they had last seen her. Thomas had originally tried to eavesdrop on the conversation they were having, it seemed to him that it would be a good way to gain information about what was going on. But alas when he had tried to listen in he had found that the room became practically soundproof once the door was closed, only faint murmurs of unintelligible words were able to make it through.

He did however, manage to make out a cry of “He’s a fucking idiot sometimes” when the door was briefly opened so that Lizzy could take a pot of tea in. Thomas had also thought that was unusual, even among the lower classes that the Shelby’s had come from a women swearing wasn’t something you heard every day, meaning that either “he” had done something exceptionally stupid to warrant such an outcry or the Shelby women were much loser with their language than any women Thomas had ever met. 

As he finished his cigarette Bates came downstairs, giving a slight nod to Thomas who promptly got up, smoothed down his livery and went upstairs.  
\--------------------------------------  
When he was done reporting everything he could think to say that had been slightly unusual about the trip so far Thomas stood quietly as Robert considered his words. 

“And you have no idea what was discussed in the room?” Robert finally said. 

“No M’lord” 

“Shame, I would have liked to know what the business of the family was. Thomas, I want you to help me figure out what the family’s business is and whether there is any truth in what Rose said about the oldest brother, Arthur.”

“I shall do my best sir.”

“Yes well, I think I should tell you what happened downstairs, after dinner and the ladies had left.”

At this Thomas looked curious, it was very unusual for after dinner discussions to be discussed with anyone who wasn’t in the room at the time. 

“Of course, this information does not go further than you and me, I am telling you this in the strictest confidence.” 

“Of course, sir.” 

Robert nodded, “I think it is possible that the Shelby brothers are trying to set Rose up with Michael, which is concerning, John even went as far as saying that he didn’t think that this would be the last wedding that we would be attending in the near future. Therefore, I think it is possible that the Shelby’s want some sort of connection with the upper classes.”  
“it’s possible sir, especially since they are trying to rise the ranks of society, yet none of them have married into an upper-class family.”

“That’s true. I also overheard Tommy say that there was to be no fighting at the wedding, which I’m sure you’ll agree is concerning. In addition, Arthur seemed disappointed by the fact there would be no fighting and said that he wouldn’t provoke anyone as long as they didn’t show up in uniform.”

Thomas looked confused by this, “That doesn’t seem to make sense sir.”

“How so?” Robert replied also looking confused now.

“I know for a fact that all three brothers were in the war and awarded for their service. They were tunnelers, I treated Mr Shelby after one of the tunnels collapsed.”  
“How extraordinary.” 

The room went quiet again, clearly both men had a lot to think about that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed this. I know I've been saying it for a few chapters now but I promise the wedding is the next chapter. Thanks for reading :)


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As promised, the wedding day!! the dialogue at the end is taken directly from Peaky blinders series 3 episode 1 and therefore I claim no responsibility for it.

The wedding ceremony itself went off without a hitch as far as Robert and the rest of the family could tell. Grace had worn a beautiful purple dress, the envy of all the women in the room as she walked down the aisle on Tom’s arm. Tommy at the alter had smiled ridiculously wide upon seeing her, Cora was quite sure that that was the first time she had seen him smile, or more accurately smile in a way that she knew was real. 

The Shelby clan had taken over one side of the church. They were noisy rabble with a small army of children that their parents had attempted to keep quiet. Most of the children it seemed were belonged to John and his wife, with at least 6 children that Cora was certain were there’s, although there were other children that could conceivably have belonged to the pair. Tommy’s side of the church also contained the Lee family, whom Johnny Dogs was riding with apparently, they had been told this briefly by Finn over breakfast that morning as the family in question had arrived at the house. 

In contrast, Grace’s side of the church where they were sat was considerably quieter. There were a few titters of disapproving of the noise the other side where making, Mary had to agree with them to an extent. She had always been told that when in church one was to be quiet and talk softly before mass. To be fair though the Shelby brothers were eyeing the men on Grace’s side with as much disapproval for choosing to wear their cavalry uniforms to the service. 

Arthur stood by Tommy’s side at the front of the church looked mildly as if he was going the faint from nervousness. He kept looking over at his wife, who would give him a little smile and nod, before turning back to face the rest of the church. Edith wished she could encourage him a little, she did worry that if he were struggling to stand at the front of the church, he was going to struggle a lot to do his speech at the dinner. 

As Grace walked down the aisle the congregation sang In the Bleak Midwinter, the entire Shelby clan had to admit that it was an odd choice to start a wedding with. Tom supposed there must be a reason for the choice of song, he’d have to ask Grace later.

The actual ceremony was beautiful, the two exchanged vows, rings were given, songs were sung. The newlyweds left in a horse drawn carriage while the rest of the congregation walked to the house, which wasn’t that far from the church.  
\--------------------------------------------------------  
Tommy had excused himself from the wedding party about half an hour into it. Robert had tried to follow him to ask if there was something wrong, while he had relaxed somewhat into the event he was still cautious over the Shelby family and would have preferred to be in the know as much as possible, but he lost him in the crowd. 

Robert noted, while walking back to his family that the party, that the party seemed to be divided, the hall and the library seemed to have been taken over by the Shelby’s and the Lee’s as well as a couple of people from Grace’s party, particularly the younger members. In fact, he did see Tom talking the Tommy’s sister, and Rose and Michael dancing together, as he passed the library. In this part of the house loud jazz music was being played while people danced and talked with much enthusiasm. 

In contrast most of Grace’s party as well as a man who had introduced himself a Tommy’s uncle Charlie and had then proceed to tell anyone who would listen stories about Tommy. The room was much quieter than the rest of the house. Gentle classical music was playing from the gramophone in the corner and the occupants had formed a sort of circle around Grace who was telling stories of her life in the house so far. Robert smiled at her as he re-joined Cora and his girl’s. He would have to wait for Thomas’ report of that day to find out if anything had happened, not that he could stop the wedding now if there was, but he could try to protect his family and Grace by extension by taking them away from the house. And he could definitely prevent Rose from marrying into the family if it turned out that they were not who they appeared to be.

\-------------------------------------------

Downstairs Thomas, like the rest of the servants was milling around waiting for the dinner to start so they could serve it. He had taken the moment of quiet before the storm to smoke and generally snoop around looking for anything suspicious. To be honest the effort had been half hearted, despite what Robert had said he was yet to find any evidence to suggest that the Shelby’s were anymore than a working class family who had started to do well for themselves and were attempting to climb the ladder of the class system. So what if they wanted to have Michael marry Rose in order to secure a better position in society? Still it was better to snoop around than having to sit with the others and make polite conversation, and he did still have to give Robert a report at the end of the day.

He was passing the kitchens when another footman came out and told him not to go in the kitchens because the Shelby brothers were in there. This of course piqued Thomas’ interest, it seemed highly unusual to him for any of the upstairs family to be in the kitchens, let alone on a wedding day, when they were entertaining. Thomas waited for the footman to disappear down the hall before peering through the window in the door to listen to what was going on inside.

“Tommy, you’ve got to do a map,” Arthur said as he came down the stairs on the opposite side of the kitchen “this place is too bloody big.”

The men in the kitchen then assembled in a rough semi-circle in front of Tommy. Tommy lit up a cigarette before he started speaking.

“Right boys your all here. Today, well, this is my fucking wedding day.”

“Yeah and you said there’d be no bloody uniforms.” John said, obviously unimpressed with the fact.

“Nevertheless,” Tommy said walking towards John a little, “nevertheless, John. Despite the bad blood, I’ll have none of it on my carpet. Now for Grace’s sake nothing will go wrong. Those bastards out there are our family,” Tommy got angrier and angrier as he spoke, the words getting louder and louder until he was shouting, “and if you fuckers do anything to embarrass her, your kin, your cousins, your horses, your fucking kids, you do anything…”

He was cut off.

“Tom?” One of the younger boys said, Thomas had to say he thought the boy was incredibly brave to speak to Tommy when he was shouting like that.

“What?” Tommy was staring down the boy, not impressed at being interrupted.

“What about snow?” Thomas didn’t know what that was, but he had a feeling that it wasn’t a good thing that the Crawley’s would approve off.

“Yeah their women are sport, I’ll say that.” That was Finn. 

“No, no, no, no,” Even through the door Thomas could feel the way the atmosphere became more tense as Tommy got much closer to the first boy that spoke, “No cocaine, no cocaine, ” He moved toward Finn, “no sport,” He moved to one of the other men “no telling fortunes,” He appeared to just be moving round the circle telling each of them the rules now “no racing, no fucking sucking the petrol out of their fucking cars,” With this he was holding Johns face in one of his hands, making the point all the more clear “and you Charlie,” he continued moving off in the opposite direction toward an older looking man, “stop spinning yarns about me eh?”

It seemed to Thomas that perhaps the Shelby clan were not all that honest and perhaps Rose’s insinuation that they had a violent streak had some truth in it.  
“Aw I’m just trying to sell you to them Tom.” Charlie tried to defend himself.

“But the main thing is,” Tommy continued as if he hadn’t heard Charlie, “you bunch of fuckers, despite the provocation from the cavalry, no fighting.” He started off toward the boy who had asked about snow, “Oi. No fighting.” He continued in much the same circle as he had before, getting right up close with each one of them in turn emphasising his point, “no fucking fighting, no fighting.” He resumed his position in the middle before shouting, “No Fucking fighting! Good.” He went to collect his jacket from the side by the door to the main kitchen area. As he did a footman came out the kitchen carrying something or other, the footman bumped into his shoulder, Tommy did not hesitate before knocking the man to the floor. Arthur also didn’t hesitate before throwing a bottle at the man as well. Thomas stared on at the seen in shock for a moment, this was certainly not what he had expected to discover.

As the group dispersed Thomas headed back forward the servant’s hall to sit with the Downton lot, he would have a lot to report that night without having to do anymore snooping.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed it, thank you for reading. :)


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi this chapter was taken down and majorly edited, if you don't want to re read it the plot points have stayed the same. The speech Arthur makes is taken directly from the show and there for I claim no credit for it. Hope you enjoy.

Robert sighed, people had been called to sit down for the dinner over 30 minutes ago and yet neither the bride nor groom where yet to show their faces at he head of the table. Robert thought it was rather rude for them to keep their guests waiting for so long even if it was their wedding day. There would be plenty of time for the two to spend time together once they went on to their honeymoon, after the dinner was done and all their guests had left. Meanwhile, Robert and many of the members of Graces party had been forced to endure the stream of jokes the John was telling about the Cavalry and watch Arthur become increasingly more anxious presumably about the speech he would have to perform. 

Tom, on the other hand, was rather enjoying the brief pause in the day, he had been seated next to Ada, Tommy’s sister, the one Grace had said he would like. The two had found a common interest in politics, particularly of the socialist variety, and just as Grace had said they were getting on like a house on fire. Tom was beginning to suspect that that them being sat next to each other wasn’t an accident, perhaps Grace had hoped that Tom would find a friend within the Shelby clan, much like she had.

“So how does it work then, you being part of the upper classes and having the same political as I do?” Ada asked as politely as she was able to, taking a sip of the champagne that was being served.

“It was difficult at first, trying to reconcile my political beliefs with the life I was faced with, but I realised that Sybil would have wanted our daughter to grow up wit her family around her, not on our own in Ireland or Chicago or anywhere else I could go for that matter, so there wasn’t an option for me to leave Downton. I didn’t choose to fall in love with someone in the upper classes, I just did. She had similar ideas to me, but a healthy respect for the traditions as well, I eventually found myself following her example, I still hold my beliefs and fight with Robert about them from time to time, but I can see it from both sides now. Traditions should be upheld, but there are ways of making the system we live in fairer.” Tom paused for a moment allowing himself remember Sybil’s passion for helping people less fortunate than herself.

“Your wife sounds like sounds like she must have been a wonderful person.” Ada said gently drawing Tom back out of his thought.

“She was.” He paused again shaking off the last of his memories, “How do you reconcile your beliefs with your brother living here?” He gestured around him as if to give an example of the upper-class life Tommy had adopted.

“I haven’t had much contact with my brothers since I married Freddie, course when he died they wanted to be more involved in my life, or wanted to keep Karl and me safe as they would put it.” She rolled her eyes making it clear she was perfectly capable of keeping herself safe, even if she did still have connections to the Shelby’s and by extension the Peaky Blinders. “And while I do let them help sometimes, I mostly live my own life, and live out my message.”

Tom nodded and went to comment on what Ada had said but at that moment Tommy and Grace walked in arm in arm and a cheer went up around the dinning room.   
Grace looked slightly embarrassed as she took her seat, but she smiled. Tommy took his seat without a word to anyone and a mostly blank on his face.   
Once everyone quietened down again Tommy stood and proposed a toast to Grace which was heartily returned by those gathered.

“And now according to tradition my best man will say a few words.” Tommy sat back down as Arthur rose from his seat and there were a couple of cheers from the rest of the Shelby boys as he did so. 

“I’d like to ….umm… I’m not one for speeches,” Arthur started, clearly terrified. 

“Sing then.” John shouted back, Robert suspected he may have had too much to drink and had lost his sense of knowing when it was time to be quiet.  
“I will later John,” Arthur replied with a polite smile, “but uh I do uh Id have some words written down her … on this piece of paper.” He said leaning over to get the paper from his jacket pocket, Robert was suddenly hit with the feeling that the next few minutes were going to be very long indeed. 

“This doesn’t include everything I want to say,” Arthur continued.

“Arthur just uh just read what we wrote down eh?” Tommy said quietly next to him probably having the same feeling Robert had.

“I will, I will, but” He put the paper back on the table, “First, First uh a few words from the heart. This man here my brother Tommy, helped me survive through some of the worst times.”

Tommy coughed loudly, trying to signal to Arthur that he should move on from the ‘few words from the heart’ in as subtle a way as possible. Michael did not go for such an approach.

“It’s a wedding Arthur tell a joke.”

“Yeah tell a joke” John pitched in. Robert had to admit that he did agree with the sentiment of the Shelby boys heckling even if he did thing it enormously rude.

“What I’m trying to say is that m..m..my brother and the love of a good woman pulled me through that time. Now Tommy also has the love of a good woman. Her name’s Grace, like the Grace of the good Lord.” Robert felt his gaze sift over to Mary on the opposite side of the table where she had been sat between Edith and a Russian chap before he had moved to sit by Polly Grey. Mary wore an expression that could only be described as spellbound by the awful speech that was happening in front of her eyes, Edith and Rose who occupied the two seats to Mary’s left looked a little more sympathetic to Arthur’s obvious nervousness. Robert was just about to turn to look at Tom who was much nearer the head of the table than the rest of them when he felt a gentle kick under the table from his wife, reminding him no doubt that it was rude not to play attention to the speech. 

“And even thought the circumstances of their union was tragic…” Perhaps Grace’s first husband had not been divorced then as Robert had first suspected, maybe he had died.  
Tommy who was clearly regretting his choice of best man stood up again cutting Arthur off, and again although he thought it was a little rude Robert had to be at least a little bit thankful that the speech was finally over. 

“All right. Let’s uh.. Arthur. Let’s raise a toast eh? To uh… To love, to peace, to marriage.”

“To marriage” the rest of the party heartily replied.   
\--------------------------------------------------------------  
Later that evening the majority of the men had been ushered out the house with the promise of racing and the possibility to lay a bet, the excitement had gone around the house in whispers of course, so as not to upset the ladies. 

Thomas had been surprised when the news eventually reached the servants hall where he was sitting with the Bates’s. As Thomas had heard Tommy specifically tell his family earlier that there would be no racing at the wedding, to say his interest was piqued was an understatement. 

Thomas decided to go and investigate what was going on outside. Leaving the Bates’ behind he started to navigate the corridors to the back yard of the house. 

By the time he got there most of the Shelby boys had arrived but the Cavalry had yet to arrive. Johnny Dogs was leading two horses out of the stable, laughing as he explained that one of them had been fed making it heavier and slower. There was then a lot of shouting about placing bets. Finn got up on one of the horses with surprising grace and Johnny Dogs started shouting about how he hoped Finn didn’t fall off, clearly for the benefit of the Cavalry men who were starting to file out of the house. 

While most of the men were now present in the courtyard, there were two exceptions that Thomas noted, Tommy and Arthur. Normally he wouldn’t have thought much of the Groom and best man not being present at this kind of activity at a wedding, but when it came to Tommy and Arthur Thomas was more than a bit suspicious. While he had given Tommy the benefit of the doubt due to the history the pair of them shared, he had since grown suspicious of the man due to the evidence which was beginning to stack against him, he was just unsure of what the evidence was off. He went back into the house to investigate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed.


	11. Chapter 11

Anna had been the only one sat in the servant’s hall when Polly Grey came down looking for her son. It was the first time Anna had had a chance to get a proper look at the woman, she had had to rush off to start the unpacking for Lady Mary when introductions had been made, and up until this point there had been no reason for her to see the woman again.  
She wasn’t as tall as Anna had first thought, but she somehow drew herself up. Anna remembered that she had seemed to tower over the other Shelby women when she first saw her outside. She had dark hair although it was beginning to grey in places, although that was the only sign that she was any older than the rest of the Shelby clan. Her face looked remarkably youthful for someone of her age, yet at the same time the sharp look in her eyes gave her a way to be a wise and refined woman. 

“Can I help you Miss?” Anna said.

“Have you seen my son?”

“I’m sorry Miss but which one of the young men is your son, I apologise but I’m Lady Mary’s Lady’s maid so I’m not familiar with everyone in the house.” Anna paused wondering if she’d been too impertinent, perhaps she should have just said that she hadn’t seen the boy.

Polly studied the girl for a moment before replying. “No don’t apologise, it’s not your fault you’ve only been her two days. Michael’s mine, the younger one, must be about your age. Blonde hair, a bit like your actually.” Polly paused again and Anna could feel her eyes scrutinising her.

“Well I’m afraid I haven’t seen a man answering that description today. Is there anything else I can do for you?”

“No, no,” she said shaking herself out of her thoughts, “you’ve been quite helpful…” She paused waiting for Anna to supply her name.  
“Anna, Miss.”

“Anna, I’ll let you get on with your work.”

“Thank you, Miss.” Anna walked away up the stairs toward Lady Mary’s room. Polly stared after her, it seemed she had some things to ask Tommy about, she thought her Anna was dead and yet here was this girl that looked as if she could be Michael’s twin, with the same name as her daughter. She needed Tommy to do some digging.  
\--------------------------------------------------------------  
Thomas wound his way through the labyrinth that was the basement of the house, he honestly couldn’t understand why anyone would design their house with such a confusing set of tunnels to go through in order get anywhere. 

So far, he’d been traversing the cold tunnels for close to 10 minutes looking for anything that could be considered out of the ordinary. Ideally he like to find Tommy and Arthur, preferably not doing anything too shady but that was a longshot. He had gone upstairs to the party first to check for Tommy and Arthur at the party before he subjected himself to this subterranean world. The corridors were poorly lit but not dark enough for him to struggle seeing too much. The walls were lined with doors every few meters and Tommy made sure to look in each one carefully. Behind most of the doors he had found dusty storage rooms. He had heard movement behind one of the doors so eased the door open just a little bit to reveal a blond boy and Lady Rose. Thomas vaguely remembered the boy from the line up outside the house when they had arrived, Michael his mind supplied. The two were kissing in a way that would definitely not be approved of by their parents, but he couldn’t really judge so he closed the door as gently as he could. He wouldn’t add this to his report, why not let Lady Rose have a little fun she was always one of the upstairs lot that had treated the downstairs lot well. 

He continued making his way down the corridor when he heard shouting coming from around a corner. Thomas ran toward the noise, he stopped just short of the turn, plastering himself against the wall so as to mot let the two men around the corner see him he kept listening though, and allowed himself the occasional glance into the room where the two men were. It appeared that Arthur was chasing a man Thomas vaguely recognised from the party down the corridor on the other side of the room. The man was shouting in Russian, he sounded panicked, perhaps he was pleading. Arthur caught up with the Russian man inside the room and the two began to fight very quickly ending up pushing each other against the walls which were lined which shelves of bottles. The glass bottles clinked against each other as the two men grabbed at whatever they could. Suddenly there was a gun, Thomas wasn’t entirely sure who had pulled it, but it was thrown across the room by someone and it landed in the doorway. Thomas edged his way down the corridor a bit, as quickly and a silently as he could, he managed to get to one of the doors and slipped in, leaving the door cracked a little so he could continue to listen.  
“Please don’t shoot! Please don’t shoot!” The Russian man shouted. 

So, it seemed that Arthur had got to the gun first. Thomas allowed himself to peak around the door to see watch what was happening. Arthur was stood over the man as he backed himself away from the gun on the floor. 

“Please for the love of God please don’t shoot!”

“No!” Arthur replied, getting angrier by the second, “No, No, No!”

And then there was a gunshot. 

Everything went silent. 

Thomas shut the door as quietly as quietly as he could but stayed pressed up against the door listening until he had heard the sound of Arthur dragging the body down the corridor had faded back into silence.

He left the room and walked back down the corridor, trying his best to look as calm as possible, not wanting to draw attention to himself should someone find him. As he passed the door the door Michael and Rose had been behind before the door opened. 

“Oh, Thomas why are you down here?” Lady Rose said, clearly panicked that she had been caught in a compromising situation and trying to sound defensive about it.  
Thomas looked between the girl and Michael behind her, it occurred to him that he had no idea how dangerous the family was and who was involved. He suddenly wished that he had interrupted the two earlier, he had to get Rose away from the family for the sake of her safety. 

“I was actually looking for you my Lady someone said they saw you come this way. Lord Grantham asked me to find you.” He said as calmly as possible.

“Well in that case you better take me to him,” she turned to Michael, “perhaps I’ll see you later.” She smiled before following Thomas down the corridor. 

Rose had to jog a little in order to keep up with the quick pace Thomas had set. As soon as she was sure Michael would be out of earshot Rose started to talk again. 

“I know your not supposed to know or speculate about this sort of thing but I was wondering did Robert seem like he was upset with me when he sent you to find me, only I know I’m not supposed to spend time alone with a man….”

“You’re not in trouble Lady Rose, in fact Lord Grantham didn’t actually ask to see you.”

“Then why…?”

“I’ve just witnessed something that I don’t feel comfortable sharing with you Milady, but it has shown me that this family is dangerous, I had to get you away from that boy. I hope you understand, Milady, just want to keep you safe.”

Rose was silent for a moment.

“Does it…. Does it have something to do with a loud bang a few minutes ago.”

Thomas stopped dead. 

“You heard that?”

“Yes of course, sound travels in corridors like these. What was it?”

“It was a gunshot Milady.” Thomas looked at her with a grave face trying to convey without saying it that someone had been killed.

“Okay.” she whispered, “Okay,” She repeated louder although clearly still shocked, “so where are we going now.”

“I think the best course of action would be to talk to Lord Grantham.”

“I agree.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed!


	12. Chapter 12

Thomas raced through the house with Rose in tow, although she had fallen behind slightly due to Thomas’ quick pace. He slowed as he came to the main part of the house where the majority of wedding guests were now starting to make there excuses to leave and drunkenly getting in cars. Rose caught up with him as scanned the room looking Lord Grantham or any of the Downton lot for that matter. 

“The others must have gone up already.” She said.

“We should go to Lord Grantham’s dressing room; he’ll know what to do.”

Rose followed Thomas upstairs and down one of the corridors to a room right at the end of the east corridor. He knocked, then gestured for Rose to stay where she was for the moment. Bates opened the door, his look of confusion at being disturbed morphed into one of concern as he saw the look on Thomas’ face.   
“What’s happened?” Bates said as he noticed Rose standing behind Thomas.

“We need to speak to his Lordship, I’ve just seen something that I have to report, please it’s urgent.” Thomas replied as steadily as he could.  
“Let them in Bates.”

Bates moved aside letting the two enter the room. 

Both Thomas and Rose entered the room, Lord Grantham stood in the middle of the room looking expectantly at the newcomers. Thomas waited for Bates to close the door again before he launched into the story of what he had seen downstairs, Rose added little bits to the story, saying that she had heard the gunshot but had not seen the body. 

“My God.” Lord Grantham exclaimed, sitting on the bed not bothering to attempt containing his shock. There was a moment of silence while the man considered what he had been told. Bates on the other hand had remained relatively calm through the entire affair, then again, Thomas thought, Bates rarely showed his emotions outwardly. He stood in the corner of the room awaiting instructions on how to approach the situation they found themselves in. 

“Are you sure the man was dead, there’s no chance of saving him?” Robert said finally.

“No, my Lord.”

“Right well in that case I think it would be best if we gather the others here and explain to them what’s going on. We can see if they have seen anything else to case concern, then we should confront Mr Shelby and see what he has to say for himself.”

“I think that’s for the best my Lord, I’ll go find Anna and the ladies.” Bates replied as he nodded at them and left the room.

“I’ll go find Mr Branson then” Thomas also left, leaving Robert and Rose to recover from the shocking events of the evening and to plan the next steps.  
\---------------------------------------------  
Downstairs the Shelby’s had also gathered to discuss the shooting of the Russian man. 

“Thomas Shelby what were you thinking. It’s bad enough that you feel it’s appropriate to conduct business on your fucking wedding day but to have a man shot in a house full of guests, including a bloody Lord. Sometimes I wonder if you have any brains at all.” Polly hadn’t even waited for the entire family to gather before she started, once she had heard about the dead man who was currently being burned in the woods by Johnny Dogs she couldn’t contain her worry for her nephews. She saw the boys as her own sons and sometimes she did wonder if she had wasted her time trying to raise the boys with any sense at all.

Tommy sighed. He had known he was going to be lectured by Polly the moment she caught wind of what had happened. The woman had been on edge all day as it was, still didn’t enjoy the idea that Grace was his wife after she had betrayed the family during the affair with the guns a few years back. The rest of the family had gathered toward the tail end of Polly’s lecture.

“Right, for starters we didn’t have a choice, the man knew that the Russians were making contact tonight but didn’t know the code word we were given. Therefore, it is possible he was a spy and had to be eliminated as a threat. However, we did manage to make contact with our original contact successfully and she gave us half the money for the robbery, apparently we will get the other half when the job is complete.” Polly rolled her eyes. “Now, Ada I know you talked to the Russian man before he was killed, how much did you tell him and is it possible that he was able to pass on any information you gave him?”

“Oh, for fucks sake Tommy do you really think I go around giving out the family secrets to anyone who talks to me. It’s sad you can’t even trust your own fucking sister Tom.”  
“Ada what did you tell him?” Tommy was clearly losing his temper a little bit by this point. 

Ada rolled her eyes. “We were just talking politics Tommy, he was a refugee from Russia. Me and Tom Branson, you know Grace’s cousin, were just talking to him about what’s happening over there. Tom’s a socialist too you know. It would have been a very nice evening if Arthur hadn’t interrupted.”  
Tommy paused for a moment considering this.

“Did Tom stay with you all night after they left?” He had to make sure that Tom hadn’t followed Arthur and seen the Russian man shot, he really didn’t need to deal with the Downton lot asking questions.

“Yes Tommy, He stayed with all night. Why are you admitting that this was poorly thought out and someone might have seen?” 

“No, no. Tom’s the only one who might have been curious enough to follow. No one else would have ventured that far into the basement.” 

“That’s not entirely true Tommy,” Michael spoke up, looking a little nervous. “I took Rose down there so the rest of her family wouldn’t find us.”

“Michael you fucking idiot.” Polly said giving him a quick swat on the back of the head. She could guess what the two had wanted to be alone to do and couldn’t believe her son would be stupid enough to do it without considering the possible consequences of such actions. John and Arthur smirked at Michael’s confession and Polly’s reaction but the quickly stopped when they saw the look that Polly gave them.  
“Did she see anything Michael?”

“No I don’t think so, she heard a bang but I said it was a car backfiring.” Tommy breathed a sigh of relief, “But there was one of the Downton servants that came looking for her, I don’t know what he saw or how long he had been down there but he took Rose upstairs to Lord Grantham.”

“Shit.” Tommy thought staring wide eyed at Michael.  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Thomas finished explaining what he’d seen for a second time. He looked around the room at the shock and panic that was now on display.

“Well clearly we have to leave the house, God knows it isn’t safe.” Mary started. 

“For once I agree with Mary.” Edith chipped in, she had her arm around Rose who was crying softly, overwhelmed by the day. 

“What about Grace and her son, I can’t leave them, they’re my family as much as you are. I have to save her from a marriage where she could get hurt.” Tom’s accent was thicker than usual due to the stress of the situation. He could remember stories he had been told of what become of women who married violent men, he didn’t want that for his cousin.   
“We’ll confront Mr Shelby, it is still possible that he is not involved in this and it is just the work of his brother, which he needs to know about, what with a child to think of.” Said Robert sounding confident in his decision. “And if we find out that it is not just the brother involved int this we will take Grace and her boy with us when we leave. Of course, a divorce, if that’s what she chooses after she hears all this, will cause a stink but we will do our best to protect her Tom, I give you my word.”

“Of course, we will Tom.” Cora said smiling lightly, and putting a comforting hand on Tom’s shoulder. Tom couldn’t have looked more thankful if he tried. 

“Right,” Robert continued, “Bates I want you to escort the ladies out of the house, I don’t want them here if things turn nasty.”

Mary rolled her eyes at this clearly thinking she was old enough to protect herself at this point. 

“Very well, my Lord.” Bates said from his position in the corner where he had one arm protectively around Anna. It was clear he was relived he would not have to leave his wife. 

“Tom, Thomas, come with me.” He said heading for the door. The two men looked at each other nervously before following.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this took so long to write.

Tommy had told his family to go to bed, or to go do whatever the fuck they did when they weren’t bothering him anyway, nearly half an hour ago. Nearly all of them had obeyed him, albeit a little reluctant to leave him with the possible threat of the Russians and the Downton lot still looming over them. The only one who had refused to go was Polly. Polly who forever questioned his decisions, who challenged him at every turn. Polly who was now keeping him from his new wife. Grace had briefly come down to see where he was, but he’d just sent her back to be saying there had been some trouble at the party that needed to be sorted out before he could come to bed. It wasn’t a complete lie, there was trouble that needed sorting, it was just trouble that he was partially responsible for. She didn’t need to know that though.

“So, what’s the plan then Tommy, hum? Or as usual, have you run in all guns blazing, not stopping even for a moment to consider what might go wrong? Has it even occurred to you that there is an Earl upstairs that for all we know is calling for the police at this very moment? Has it?” Polly had been ranting like this the entire time that she had been alone with Tommy. 

“The girl was doing something she wasn’t meant to Pol, you know what their lot are like, one rumour that a girl may not be a virgin and she’s cast out of high society. No, I don’t think it’s the girl we have to worry about.” Tommy’s mind was racing. Contrary to Polly’s belief he had actually thought about what would happen if something had gone wrong with the night, if one of the guests had seen something they weren’t supposed to. The problem was in this incidence he couldn’t be sure exactly what had been seen or if anything had been seen. Michael had said that the man hadn’t regarded him with any sort of favour, though he supposed that could just be down to having been caught alone with an unmarried women. 

“What are going to do about it Tommy?” 

For the first time I a while Tommy found himself genuinely unsure about how to proceed. For a start they were uncertain about how much had been witnessed, and they couldn’t very well ask them what they had seen without arousing suspicion. The second problem in Tommy’s mind was that technically these people were part of the family now, or at least Grace’s cousin was. This put them in a position in which they could potentially be targeted by one of the rival gangs as a way to get to Tommy. As a result, the thought had crossed his mind that maybe they needed to know, or again at the very least Tom needed to know. But then on the other hand if they did know there was no guarantee that they wouldn’t run to police the Blinders didn’t have on their pay roll.

“I don’t know” He replied shocking Polly immensely, she’d never seen him unsure of anything, “Lets just see how this plays out.”

Polly nodded and opened the door of Tommy’s study only to find the men they had been talking about on the other side ready, Tom with arm raised ready to knock.  
“Oh holy Jesus” Polly muttered moving aside to let the three men into the room. 

“We want to speak to Mr. Shelby alone.” Lord Grantham said firmly, clear the request was not to be taken as a question. 

Polly and Tommy looked between each other having silent conversation.

“Anything you have to say you can say in front of Polly, I trust her.”

“Very well.” Robert and Polly took the seats in front of Tommy’s desk, Tom took a step or two closer to the desk and Thomas stays by the door, a mostly silent observer.

“Well I’m afraid Mr. Shelby that something has come to my attention that I rather wanted to discuss with you.” Robert kept the politeness that was expected of the English upper class but it was clear from his clipped tone that any respect he had for Mr. Shelby was rapidly fading. Polly sent a worried look toward her nephew, this action went unnoticed to everyone but Thomas who noted the action with interest. 

“I would appreciate it if you got to the matter at hand my Lord I’m sure you can imagine its been a long day and I wish to go and join my wife now.” Tommy spoke in the same cool way he conducted business, not giving away any emotion but making sure it was known that he was the one in charge of this meeting. 

“You seen Mr. Shelby,” Robert spoke as if Tommy hadn’t, determined to be the one in charge of this encounter, “it has come to my attention that while your guests were upstairs enjoying the party your Brother took a guest downstairs to the cellar and shot him.” 

There was a moment of silence. Polly looked to Tommy; Thomas noted that an expression of panic crossed her features for a moment before she could hide the expression fully. Finally, Tommy spoke again.

“That is a very serious accusation to make my Lord what proof do you have to back it up? I’m assuming that you wouldn’t just walk in here and make an accusation of that degree without evidence.” Tommy raised an eyebrow challenging. 

“Of course I have evidence, my man Barrow witnessed it happen.” Robert said as he turned to Thomas. All eyes in the room were now on Thomas who suddenly felt very uncomfortable.

“Its true,” He said slowly, “I went down into the cellar to find Lady Rose, she’d gone missing from the party you see, and I heard shouting so I went to see what was happening, I arrived at the scene just in time to see Mr. Shelby, your brother Mr. Shelby, shoot a man I didn’t recognize.”

Tommy nodded, he seemed to be considering what the appropriate thing to say next was, although he never got chance to say anything as at that moment the door opened to reveal Grace in a night gown. She looked around the room and pulled her night gown a little closer around her. 

“What’s going on?” 

“I was just having a meeting with the Earl and you cousin go back to bed I’ll be up soon I promise.” Tommy stood and made toward the door to open it for her. 

“Wait,” Tom said grabbing onto Grace’s arm before she could go anywhere, “I’m sorry Grace but I cant allow you to live with this man and his family, we have discovered that his brother murdered someone tonight. You can come back to Downton with us away from this family…” Tom continued to ramble on, angry that he hadn’t stopped the wedding before his cousin had married into the family, even if he hadn’t seen her in years he still felt protective of her.

“Tom,” Grace cut him of, “I knew.” She looked nervous, both Tommy and Polly were staring at her with wide eyes begging her to stop talking, “He’s my cousin he has a right to know.”

“No he fucking doesn’t” Exclaimed Polly thinly veiling her dislike for the girl, “and even if he does there are other people here who are definitely not family.”

“They may not be my blood family but Tom married into their family therefore they are mine too.”

“Grace, for the love of god stop talking.” Tommy pleaded.

“No Tom they deserve to know, they may get caught up in everything if someone finds out Tom is my cousin.”

Tommy paused considering the options, it would be impossible to blackout now without arousing too much suspicion, Grace had already said to much, maybe he could come to some sort of arrangement with them to stop them going to the police.

“Excuse me I would like to know what the hell is going on here.” Tom demanded.

“I second that.” Robert stood as he said it.

“On your head be it.” Was all Tommy said to Grace.

“You can’t be serious…” Polly started but Tommy waved her off. Polly huffed but remained quiet.

Grace looked at Tom as if it were just the two of them in the room. “You know I told you that I was working undercover in Tommy’s pub looking for a gang that had stolen guns?”

“Yes”

“Well there was a reason I was stationed in that particular pub…” Grace trailed off hoping that Tom would be able to fill in the gaps on his own.

“You don’t mean…”

“Yes. I knew when we met, before you ask, and I am truly in love with him.”

“My God” Robert whispered under his breathe, digesting the new information. Tom stood next to him looking just as shocked. “We’re leaving now.” 

Robert started toward the door, Tom and Thomas followed him still in a daze from the news. 

“I won’t go to the police for the sake of Grace but if you ever come near my family again I will not hesitate to see to it that you are arrested.” And with that Robert left the room with Thomas following close behind. 

Tom hesitated, “Come with us Grace?” 

Grace shook her head. Tom looked crest fallen and left the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Hope you enjoyed it :)


End file.
